Government formation: Juso leadership says no to the coalition agreement

Immediately before the start of the SPD membership vote on the coalition agreement with the Union, the party youth clearly positioned itself. “Our vote is rejection,” said the head of the young socialists, Philipp Türmer, on the program “Frühstart” by RTL and NTV. “There were significant improvements to the approval of the Jusos.” The Federal Executive Board came to this attitude in close coordination with the state and district associations.

Jusos put a fifth of the SPD members

The SPD will vote on the coalition agreement from Tuesday to April 29. The Jusos have 70,000 members between the ages of 14 and 35, i.e. a fifth of all around 358,000 SPD members. Not only the majority of the votes, but also a participation of at least 20 percent are necessary for the acceptance of the coalition agreement.

Union and the SPD had agreed on the 144-page coalition agreement with the title “Responsibility for Germany” last week. Among other things, he provides for seven out of 16 ministries for the Social Democrats – disproportionately for a historically bad election result of 16.4 percent.

In addition, the SPD campaign promises are fulfilled in the contract, such as 15 euros minimum wages and tax cuts for small and medium -sized incomes. However, everything is under a financing reservation.

Tower: “It is not enough for us”

The Jusos primarily criticize the decisions on social and migration policy, such as the rejection of asylum seekers at the borders. The question is: “Is what it says in this coalition agreement for a really different policy?” Said Türmer. “And unfortunately we have to say: it is not enough for us.”

The financing reservation stipulated in the contract was a “ticking time bomb”, complained by the Juso boss. “There were significant improvements to the approval of the Jusos.” However, the towerers also said that all members were free in their decision. As early as the weekend, several national associations of Juso’s criticism of the agreements in the coalition agreement had suffered and spoken out against approval, and further followed at the beginning of the week.

Klingbeil indicates alternatives

Party leader Lars Klingbeil said in the ARD: “Everyone has the right to coordinate how he or she wants to coordinate now at the membership vote. This is a democratic decision.” However, everyone must be clear what the alternative to fail a coalition of the democratic center. “An alternative are new elections, an alternative may be a minority government,” said Klingbeil. But with everything that is going on world politics, Germany must be a place of stability. A stable government is needed for this.

Four options for action at no of the SPD

If the coalition agreement fails at the vote of the SPD, there are four options for action, which are all difficult to imagine.

1. As required, it is renegotiated as required: the willingness to impose the coalition agreement again should be extremely low for CDU boss Friedrich Merz. He himself has enough to do with convincing his own party of the result. Many in the Union believe that the designated Chancellor let the SPD rose.

2. The Union is making an alliance with the AfD: That would be the only coalition that would have a majority in addition to black and red. The Union has already categorically excluded cooperation with the right wing party.

3. The Union rules alone: ​​Minority governments that work with changing majorities are only considered to be an emergency solution for transition phases in Germany because they are considered unstable. The best example is the current red-green minority government that has ruled since the breakdown of the traffic light coalition.

4. It is re-elected: This would mean a further extension of the hanging area that has been available half a year since the break of the traffic light coalition-and that in an extremely uncertain world situation. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD )’s only managing minority government would continue to rule for months without being fully able to act. And in the end there could be an election result that makes government formation even more complicated. The AfD cut out for the first time in a survey on the Bundestag election as the strongest party last week.

CDU will vote on the coalition agreement in the event of a small party congress

So far, only the CSU has accepted the coalition agreement with a board decision. The CDU’s approval is still missing. The Merz party will decide on April 28 at a small party congress. The chancellor’s election in the Bundestag and the swearing -in of the entire cabinet is planned for May 6th.